Month: February 2009

My first-born child turns 20 today. Thank you to her mom for having her. Usually, written communication flows easily onto these pages, but occasionally it cannot possibly convey. So here are 20,000 “words” of love to express how I feel about Megan Elizabeth Daley…

Happy Birthday, My Girl.
I love you.
Dad

PS She’s going to hate some of these pics…

As I emerged from the hive mind yesterday, darkness had yet to fall and thoughts of Spring sub-let my mind where vacation thoughts have been silently squatting. Possibilities include a “Spring Training” hang at Dad’s in Florida, toasting 150K American miles for a UK/France art excursion, and a Kerouac holiday “on the road” with my son across the states not identified with Don Ho or Sarah Palin. With four weeks of annual vacation I could potentially swing all of these, but won’t, especially with a basement family room to build before the dog days.

I’ll discuss this more with Maddy over breakfast which begins now. “Blues Clues” is ovah!

Saturday is Megan’s 20th birthday. “It’s so depressing,” she says. Um, see me in 30, my girl… February 28th is also the 4th anniversary of this blog and I’m contemplating whether there’ll be a 5th. My blog stats have been sliding like Citi’s stock price and I’m wondering whether to go pouring good words on top of bad. I love writing, but maybe I should put my efforts into the great American novel instead… or writing jokes… or a business… or something non-virtual.

“I was writing my life instead of living it.”
– Soul Searching Thomas Merton

“Melancholy dripped from him as he walked.” Sadly I identified with that description of Abraham Lincoln when I heard it during a revealing documentary on his life. I don’t want to be low and I’m wondering if I’m wired that way or if I tripped on my wires adding a “d” to my personal evolution.

Last week in Dallas was our “Pre-Sales / Services” conference in preparation of a new release of our flagship product. The week was densely packed with content and socialization, and I had a presentation to deliver. Last. Yeah, I would be last person between my peers and their flights, wives, husbands, partners, children, cats and cute little puppies.

On Tuesday morning prior to my own flight, I was just beginning to think about my content, but moreso how I could entertain a restless bunch who’d been decked with Powerpoints for the better part of 30 hours over a three-day span. As I procrastinated with a Facebook update, it hit me.

Like pine nuts in pesto, I liberally sprinkled “anonymous” Facebook updates from conference attendees throughout my slides. Between bullets and graphs were “_____ is finally clearing out emails from August” and gems like “_____ needs the funk. Gotta have that funk” and “_____ is sitting at the bar with _____ and _____, and yes, we are working!” I ad-libbed commentary.

It worked. I heard many howls of laughter and applause, and I knew I had their full attention for the business content I was presenting.

Still, what I really got off on was making them laugh. I love that and it’s something I’ve been trying to do all my life… mostly successfully. Johnny Carson said, “If you get laughs, you’re a comedian.” I have a laugh.com interview with Woody Allen and one of his segments is titled, “Comedy and pain.” I think my drivers are pain and vain. Maybe if I make people laugh, they’ll like me… and the spotlight will be on me. I do like that white hot spotlight. In fact, given um, the fact “I” has been used 23 times so far in this post, some fair vanity is glaringly evident. That also explains this space. Anyway, back to me.

“How to fight loneliness?
Smile all the time”

Jeff Tweedy – “How to fight loneliness” – found on Wilco’s Summerteeth

Here’s a brilliantly designed explanation of our Crisis of Credit. It’s only about 5 minutes long, but it’s a great primer on why we’re in trouble.

Nielsen’s ratings tell us “American Idol” is the most viewed show in the United States of America and that PBS shows like “Frontline” don’t make the Top 20. I wonder what percentage of “Idol” viewers find “Frontline” “boring?” So while a large number of Americans drool over the failings of talentless sonic hopefuls, our country is crumbling. I suppose that’s the point of escapist TV. Here’s some evidence of the sorry state of our republic and why we need a complete “national makeover.”

• General Motors, once the world leader in automobile manufacturing, needs more of our tax dollars or they face bankruptcy.
• Nouriel Roubini, one economist who predicted our current financial slam dance is now saying many of our major financial institutions are insolvent and the only way to save the system is to nationalize it.
• Moving on to the means to our ends, in January, we lost some 24 soldiers in the Army to suicide. That’s more than we lost in combat.
• Paying for some of this economic Mariana Trench, the economic stimulus bill to be signed by President Obama on Tuesday raises the national debt ceiling above Twelve Trillion Dollars.

The problem is “the ugly American” as perceived by many in the rest of the world. We’re ignorant from failed education, yet arrogant from chants of “USA!” and we’ve been trained by our financial puppet masters to expect instant and cheap gratification. The problem is the illusion of “cheap” has been created by governmental and personal deficit spending and any gratification worth experiencing isn’t instant.

• GM is the victim of the business cycle. They’ve been making cars longer than foreign competitors, so their legacy costs (evolving union contracts, pensions, and the cost to finance them) saddle them with an uncompetitive financial burden. They’re going down, so let’s not strap any more tax dollars to their rusting hull.
• Nationalize the major banks, then break them up and reprivatize them as smaller, more localized entities so there’s real competition. Since 1959, the percentage of American business profits grabbed by our financial institutions has increased from 14.96% to 33.36% in 2007. A good deal of their $10.5T profit over those years has gone to the personal wealth of the Gordon Gekko’s running them.
• War cannot continue to be a major instrument of our foreign policy. It’s 2009 people. Our last justifiable military action was booting Hitler out of Europe. Since then our warring ways have built a shameful military-industrial complex that needs to be largely dismantled.
• Ten and One Half-Trillion (and rising) of national debt combined with $2.596T of US consumer debt is proof that we cannot afford what we’ve been sold as the “American Way of Life.” Is it just coincidence the $10.5T debt ($10.2T accumulated since 1959) is nearly equal to the profits (and profit growth rate) of financial institutions over the same time period? Probably, but with labor costs shrinking as a percentage of non-financial industry costs, where has the borrowed money gone?

I contend most of it has gone into the pockets of the “financial masters of the universe” and that’s exactly where it should come from to pay it back.

• Any weekend without vomit or diarrhea is a good weekend.
• Bruce’s halftime gig was cheesey.
• The Vermont Teddy Bear Company V-Day ads are aimed at male cretins.
• NPR reported yesterday 15% of women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day.
• I wonder if Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner will ever have credibility in his new job.
• Alex Rodriguez should have a monster season this year now that his steroid secret is out. Of course the Yankees can’t win with him, but that’s another story.
• I’m still feeling there’s another shoe (or two) to drop in our economic crush.
• I sure hope there’s accountability on how this stimulus package gets spent.
• I’m thinking yoga.
• I have a presentation to a couple hundred people next week and about 3 slides (and no jokes) completed. Is that bad?
• My taxes are filed and I already received my state refund.
• I’m very proud that my daughter finished high-school while doing a great job raising her Madison.
• “Blues Clues” is now over so it’s time to make Maddy breakfast.

Bye.

25 Mostly Random Things About Me…
1. It was a dark and stormy night…
2. As a kid, skipping church and buying a bag of barbecued chips with the money Mom gave me for the felt covered collection pan seemed like the right thing to do.
3. Getting caught stealing an “Almond Joy” from the Greenwood Pharmacy at 10 may have circumvented a life of crime.
4. Running Dad’s burger stand on Revere Beach was a summer job a couple years during high school.
5. Drinking a couple beers with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from KISS at the “Lord Wakefield” Hotel around 1977 while wrapped in a leather coat and a Jimmy Page hair mess was kinda cool.
6. High school senior year began at 16. Malcolm Gladwell says that’s a huge disadvantage and perhaps the cause of maturational retardation.
7. Swishing a ¾ court length shot just before the half of a JV game in HS was exhilarating, but sadly, it only counted for a deuce back then.
8. Very little blogging has been happening lately, so why this?
9. At 50, only 3 companies have employed me since college.
10. Music is always heard, even when none is playing.
11. Of three grandchildren, Madison lives with me, and Mackenzie visits often, but Kolby was adopted by another family.
12. ADD is pretty much a given, but certainly not ADHD.
13. After scoring a 36 on a college Stats mid-term worth 33, it was clear the other students were not pleased with whoever screwed the curve.
14. Waiting tables was a first gig for a couple years out of college…while taking acting classes.
15. Driving cross-country was a bi-annual event during college, but it took over 40 years to set foot in Manhattan.
16. Tar Hut Records was a small indie record label 2 partners and I ran from 1995 – 2000. We released 9 records.
17. I saw the Monkees at the old Boston Garden in the 60’s. Years later I heard Jimi Hendrix opened, but I have no recollection of anything more than girls screaming.
18. 900 miles each way was not too far from Tucson to see the Stones in Boulder, Co in 1981.
19. Being a father has been a Dickensonian “best of times and worst of times.”
20. I have nothing to fear but fear itself.
21. I broke my zygomatic arch playing baseball on July 3, 1975. Surgery followed the next day.
22. I’m just beginning to understand,

“You need elephant balls
If you don’t want to crawl
On your hands
Through this world” – Tom Petty

23. So I’m reading a book on assertiveness.
24. I’m getting to the point of almost figuring it out, but…
25. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.